Novembro 3, 2021

Upcoming changes for Knox products in November 2021

Samsung Knox Team

The next Knox cloud service release is scheduled for November 17th, 2021, during regular PST business hours. This release is expected to include new product features and enhancements that aim to improve product usability in the Knox ecosystem. During the release process, SamsungKnox.com and each of the Knox product admin portals will continue to be available.

Additionally, starting from this release, Knox product versioning will be named based on dates, specifically the year followed by the month. For example, this upcoming November release will have 21.11 as the version name.

Keep in mind that these pre-release notes include future feature commitments and other information that may change leading up to the actual release.

 

Overview

With the upcoming release, the common components and associated Knox products see improvements and enhancements from a user experience and functionality standpoint. In this post, we will cover the additional features that build upon existing features that are now available for your Knox services.

 

Expected changes to common components

The following table summarizes the key changes that will affect the whole Knox ecosystem.

Component

Enhancements

SamsungKnox.com

Knox Admin Portal

  • Okta IdP support for SSO — Add support for Okta Identity Providers (IdP) with SSO configuration.

Knox MSP Portal

  • Availability of Samsung Care+ for Business — Enable MSPs to provide Samsung Care+ for Business service to their managed customers, with the ability to manage, register, and invite customers.
  • Knox Suite license generation for EE devices on behalf of managed customer — Enable MSPs to generate and register Knox Suite licenses on behalf of customers who purchased EE devices.
  • License improvements on the Knox MSP Portal
    • Apply existing Knox Suite license to newly added Knox Manage or E-FOTA service for the assigned customer.
    • Allow you to replace Knox Configure, Knox Manage, and Knox E-FOTA licenses.

 

Expected changes to Knox products

The following table summarizes some of the key changes to Knox products that will go live with the upcoming Knox release.

Product

Enhancements

Knox Mobile Enrollment

  • Force DO/Let EMM chose option update — Remove the Force DO/Let EMM choose option and have all profiles work as Let EMM choose (DO or WP-C).
  • New UEMs in Android Enterprise profiles — Add support for Headwind and Urmobo UEMs in Android Enterprise profiles.

Knox Manage

  • Changes in Android 12
    • Give end users the ability to allow precise and approximate location access in KM app.
    • Give end users the ability to choose the enrollment type of either Fully Managed Device and Work Profile on Company owned device during setup.
    • Give end users the ability to screen capture on some pre-loaded apps (System UI, Settings), even when capture is disallowed by KM policy.
  • Managed Configuration Export/Import — Allow Managed Configurations to be exported and imported for reuse.
  • Remote alarm command — Add a device command that plays an alarm on the device until the user takes action.
  • Lock screen message — Add a policy to set a lock screen message.
  • Report mailing — Add the ability to schedule an automated email containing a report's information. Each email links to an Excel spreadsheet that is available for download for 7 days. Email frequency can be daily, weekly, or monthly. Up to 10 reports can be scheduled for email.
  • Azure AD sync service support Azure AD through the Graph API. User and group sync is supported, but only one Azure AD sync service is allowed per tenant.
  • Knox Remote Support enhancement — Change KM Remote Support name to Knox Remote Support for better consistency among other Knox products. Additionally, make it available on shared devices.
  • Windows — App management and Azure AD sync support
    • Add the ability to assign and install Windows apps. End users can download private apps through the integrated App Store in the KM app, and will be redirected to the Microsoft Store for public apps.
  • Chrome OS — App management — Add the ability to upload and assign applications with Managed Google Play in Chrome, with ID or URL.
  • iOS — Support and policies — Support iOS 15 and add new policies, including Force Wi-Fi allowed network only, Full screen option, and Voice control.
  • End of Support for Internet Explorer — End support for using the KM Console on Internet Explorer on November 18th, 2021. The KM console is best viewed in Edge, Chrome, or Firefox.

Knox E-FOTA

  • Gradual campaign rollout — Add the ability to rollout campaigns to devices gradually. For example, 5% of the devices can start a firmware download on the first day, the next 5% on the day after, and so on.
  • Network throttling per Wi-Fi SSID — Enable network throttling per Wi-Fi SSID when downloading firmware.
  • Daily campaign update report — Allow you to subscribe to a daily email report with campaign updates.  

Knox Asset Intelligence

  • Today’s Issue Report — Add an at-a-glance summary of daily app and Wi-Fi activity on your KAI dashboard, and enable you to set thresholds for email alerts. The default upload interval for app events is changing from 3 hours to 1 hour, and Wi-Fi connectivity from 3 hours to real time.
  • In-app device diagnostics — Enable you to send on-demand debug logs or check device details from the KAI agent app, including IMEI, OS version, memory, battery status, Wi-Fi status, and more.
  • Advanced Wi-Fi information — Add device ID, AP SSID, and abnormal disconnection category information for the available Wi-Fi data. Enable you to filter them with an SSID allow list.
  • Advanced app information — Enable you to search for package names or check the Call stack, which provides detailed information for App ANR/FC events.
  • Support for Samsung device extensions — Add support for Samsung devices running Android 12 with the Secured by Knox designation. Note that there are some devices with limitations that are not supported in KAI.
  • Enhanced scanning intelligence — Add ability to track total scans done with device camera and peripheral hardware separately. Use total scans by device information to optimize device utilization.

Knox Configure

  • Knox Configure (KC) Routines — Add automated actions which are triggered by certain conditions. For example, you can set a condition for a battery level below a specific percentage when creating a Routine Applet. Resulting actions can include opening specific apps while preventing users from exiting them, and turning devices off.
  • Self-uninstallation of KC agent — Add the option to let the KC agent uninstall itself after device configuration, for when you don't want to give a full set of permissions for minimal configuration cases. The option is available with Samsung Kids mode. Add the option to include Booting and Shutdown animation features.
  • Enhanced Kiosk Mode (Multi-app) — Allow you to select and add content such as PDFs, images, and videos in Multi-App Kiosk mode. Add a content folder to store content in Multi-App Kiosk mode.

Samsung Care+ for Business

  • Knox MSP Portal support for Samsung Care+ for Business — Include Samsung Care+ for Business as one of the services available within the Knox MSP Portal. Samsung Care+ for Business customers can request MSPs to manage their service instead, and MSPs can manage multiple customers in one place.
  • Provide Samsung Care+ for Business Terms and Conditions view — Link to a page where you can review the contents of Samsung Care+ for Business Terms and Conditions in the footer of the portal. With this, you can manage the policy with more flexibility and reduce concerns of device misuse.